Interview with Evgeny Gavrilenkov

Evgeny Gavrilenkov, the Managing Director and the Chief Economist of the Troika Dialog Group investment company, spoke to RT about the prospects and benefits of Russian-Indonesian co-operation.

Russia Today: So, President Putin has named energy, aviation, space and military spheres as the most important for co-operation between the two countries. How beneficial do you think they are, and what does Russia get out of this co-operation?

Evgeny Gavrilenkov: First of all these are the areas where Russia can grow fast, and where Russia can deliver its own products to the other countries. And among the Asian markets Indonesia is the largest country in this region, with the largest economy. Evan though it is smaller than Russia’s economy it is one of the potential recipients of Russian products. We have to diversify from oil and gas production and start exporting manufactured products. Aviation is one of the areas where we can have some success. In the near future we will have an original Super Jet 100 made by Sukhoi. Potentially, Indonesia could be one of the buyers of such products. That is why Putin mentioned those areas. Energy is obviously another story. First of all, Indonesia is an oil exporting country, but recently it became a net importer of oil. It is a big economy in the region, but in terms of GDP per capita it is quite small and the oil industry needs more investments. Russian companies, such as Lukoil, which was named as one of the potential investors into the Indonesian economy, will help to develop oil fields and the oil industry.

RT: Russia recently tends to strengthen its co-operation with countries from the Asian region. What lies behind this?

E.G.: I would say that Russia tries to strengthen relations not only with Asian economies, but also look at Latin America - with Venezuela. Russia diversifies its relations with many countries. Relations with Europe were always close and they keep developing. Asia is particularly interesting because it is one of the fastest growing regions, particularly in Indonesia, where over 230 million people live with the economy growing at 6-7% a year. It is potentially a big market. Traditionally, Asian countries had co-operation with the Soviet Union, and that is an area where we can restore co-operation. We can start exporting our manufactured products, such as energy products, goods for the energy sector, airplanes or whatever.